In the assembly of electrical components to a printed circuit board, for any given board circuit, a plurality of components must be applied that have different dimensions and thus different spacings between the leads of the components. The component leads are either manually or automatically inserted into preselected holes in the board. Once the leads are inserted into the board, a cutting and clinching unit positioned below the board will cut off the excess lead and bend or form (clinch) the remaining lead to securely attach the component to the board. After all necessary components have been assembled to the board, the entire assembly goes through a wave solder process to complete the board assembly.
This assembly process can be semi-automatic by the operator having components supplied in a preselected sequence through a programmed supply source such as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,273,393. With the board fixed in a station available to the operator, the preselected component is inserted into the board at a location identified to the operator and a cut-clinch unit programmed to cut and clinch the preselected component is activated by the operator to move into position and cut and clinch the component leads. Examples of such cut-clinch units are illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,288,914 and 4,292,727. Additionally, such cut-clinch units are mounted to move toward and away from the board and to rotate with respect to the board since the angular disposition of the components inserted into the board vary with respect to one another. An example of this type of unit is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,153,082.